Ch.1243Seems Like Something’s Not Working Out?

After giving Ophelia the order to wreak havoc in the giant fortress, I refocused on the battlefield situation.

‘The front… we can’t break through that.’

Breaking through the front gate seemed impossible. We had somehow managed to reach the wall, but that was as far as we could get.

Erzsebet was somehow being held back by Caljarat, but that merely prevented an instant annihilation disaster.

The divine clash between the two transcendents had broken the spearhead of our assault force with just its aftershocks, and with the defensive formations on the walls and the fierce attacks of the vampire monsters added to that, there was absolutely no progress in the siege.

Breaking the walls or climbing up to occupy them was unthinkable; everyone was barely managing to keep themselves alive. It seemed difficult to expect anything more.

[You didn’t expect much to begin with, did you?]

That’s true.

Unlike the other three sides blocked by cliffs, the front of the castle was a wide-open gentle slope, making advancement easy, but that didn’t mean it was easy to conquer.

Unless there were holes drilled in the brains of all the defending troops, they wouldn’t leave such an obvious weakness unprotected.

If the front is the easiest—in fact, the only viable route for advancement—the defenders would naturally focus their efforts on fortifying it.

In other words, the seemingly accessible main gate was only superficially so; in reality, it was an iron wall that couldn’t guarantee breakthrough even if thousands of troops were sacrificed.

If Caljarat had properly done his job and shattered the walls, things might have been different, but he was struggling just to deal with Erzsebet, let alone attack the walls.

‘Then, what about the sides…?’

The front seems impossible to break through. What about the situation on both sides of the castle, where about a thousand stone giants were deployed to the cliff areas?

– BOOM!

That area was also a chaotic battlefield. Boiling oil, flames, falling rocks, arrows, and even giant scythes that looked like they were meant for giants.

All sorts of things that shouldn’t be falling from the sky were pouring down endlessly like monsoon rain.

The stone giants were either blocking them with rock umbrellas or jumping to avoid them, using rocks as footholds while diligently climbing the cliff.

‘Wow, they’re actually climbing up. They’re really tough.’

I definitely ordered them to do so, but I also told them to conserve their strength and fight cautiously until I gave the signal, since it would be counterproductive if they were all wiped out from pushing too hard.

I’m not sure if I should call it foolish or steadfast, but the stone giants seemed to have forgotten my advice about being careful and were extremely aggressive in their siege.

“KIEEEEEK!”

“Climb up! Keep climbing!”

They were truly valiant, shouting loudly and steadily advancing despite being covered in the blood and flesh of their comrades.

I didn’t know stone giants could be so brave.

I knew they were a race that revered ‘warrior spirit’ like the Ka’har, but I was still impressed anew.

“Hurry! Climb faster! We’re just getting hit down here!”

“This is hell, hell…! We need to end this quickly to survive!”

…Are they not brave but desperate and frantic?

Well, the difference between unyielding courage and desperate determination with nowhere to retreat is paper-thin. The result is the same—moving forward, right?

So there’s no need to worry about such trivial differences.

What matters is that the stone giants chose to charge forward rather than retreat.

The path ahead was bleak and our powerful allies were silent—a situation where human troops would have broken and fled long ago.

‘Nigel and Jahan… must be hiding well. Even I can’t see them.’

While the difficult advance route wasn’t my fault, the silence of the hero-class forces I assigned to the detachment was indeed due to my instructions.

I had told Nigel and Jahan beforehand not to step forward until I started fighting. If Erzsebet discovered there were humans mixed in with this army, she would naturally suspect my presence as well.

That would completely ruin my plan to end this quickly with a surprise attack from the beginning.

A surprise is only a surprise if the opponent doesn’t know about it; if they’re aware, it’s just an obvious sequential deployment.

So when exactly would this “decisive moment” come? Well, that depended on Caljarat.

At least while that red pillar remained intact, it was impossible. Breaking through that with my bare body would require accepting significant damage even for someone like me, and using Heaven Slash would certainly be noticed.

Even if I were lucky enough to hide the preliminary signs, once I swung my sword, she would naturally notice and respond.

If the barrier was sturdy enough to withstand Caljarat’s quadruple-layered severing strikes, it would also withstand Heaven Slash for a very brief moment.

It would be less than a second, but in that time, she could barely manage to dodge. Then she would flee all the way to the edge of the universe, knowing she couldn’t win against the combined attack of Caljarat and me.

So I waited.

I waited for the moment when she would draw out more power to defeat Caljarat decisively, creating a gap in that pillar of blood.

【 —Well, let’s end this now. 】

And when that wish became reality.

– KWAAAANG!

I kicked off the ground with all my might, soaring like a shell, and overlaid my will onto the world, stopping time.

【 Defying Fate 】

A heroic tale with a will powerful enough to affect the entire world.

Until just before, Erzsebet would have certainly detected such a powerful manifestation of will, but now she was deploying massive power before herself to kill Caljarat.

Obscured by the vast pulsations of her own technique, she failed to notice my surprise attack and left herself defenseless.

…Well, due to the aftereffects of that power, I couldn’t cut her in half as intended and had to settle for cutting off her arm.

I clearly meant to split her body in two, but Durandal’s trajectory curved as if being sucked into that blood-colored sun, hitting her arm instead of her waist.

Moreover, Defying Fate’s time stop broke earlier than expected, completely dissipating the moment I got behind her.

Anyway, I broke through the pillar of blood Erzsebet had created and cut off both her arms.

“—Why so surprised? Is this your first time getting your arms cut off?”

And now, I swung my sword again at the vampire who turned to me in shock.

“Who the hell are you?!”

Erzsebet shouted venomously, violently flapping her two wings.

With a whoosh of air pressure and some viscous sensation, the giant bat-like blood membrane split open, transforming into ten scythes that aimed at me like claws.

I expected the blood-red sun attack she had prepared to kill Caljarat to come at me, but it had already lost its form and was now pouring down like a waterfall of blood.

It seemed to have been a magic-based technique, but perhaps the control failed when her arms were cut off, causing the formation itself to break.

That’s usually how it is with power beyond one’s control.

Even a small shock can cause control failure, resulting in either an explosion or simply dissipating. This time it was the latter. Quite fortunately.

I could have countered that if needed, but even I would have had to accept considerable expenditure to do so.

– WHOOSH!

Compared to that, these scythes are nothing. They’re faster than I expected, but not enough to exceed my expectations.

“What, don’t you recognize me?”

I swung Durandal with a smirk.

– CRACK!

My diagonal downward slash shattered four scythes, and with a spinning upward strike, three more were cut through space itself.

I kicked another one aside and crushed it, and the last two I grabbed with Frosting, crumbling them and tearing them out by the roots.

As they were merely weapons made of blood rather than her actual body, the broken scythes all scattered into puddles of blood.

“Hello, I’m a pest control specialist from SESCO. Exterminating mosquito-like pests is my livelihood. Nice to meet you?”

I introduced myself mockingly as I shook the remaining drops of blood from my hand.

Erzsebet, now missing both arms and wings, glared at me with her alluring face contorted.

“How dare you…! How dare you act so impudent, you human who has no skill except for cowardly surprise attacks…!”

“Now you’re talking like a person? Given up on pretending to be a transcendent? Arrogant ones like you only start making sense after they’ve felt the blade.”

“…You think this counts as a wound? Even after awakening divinity, you remain pathetically human and foolish.”

When I pointed out that her speech pattern had normalized from the pretentious tone mixed with divinity, she growled through gritted teeth before forcibly correcting her expression and raising the corners of her mouth.

“Look, cutting off mere arms means nothing to me—”

Erzsebet smiled smugly, showing me the cross-section of her right arm as if to boast. She seemed intent on flaunting the vampire’s near-immortal regenerative abilities.

Yes, vampire regeneration is indeed impressive. They say they can rise again even if their entire body is ground to pulp?

I hadn’t seen it myself and only heard about it from Caliburn, but if they could regenerate from such a state, they were indeed half-immortal.

“Means nothing…?”

If they could regenerate, that is.

“…Huh?”

Erzsebet’s complexion, which had been looking at me triumphantly, suddenly turned pale.

Of course, she was already pale, but now she was about twice as pale. Almost like a translucent sheet of white paper.

“What’s wrong? Something not working properly?”

“This can’t be… why isn’t it… healing…!”

Erzsebet muttered, sweating coldly as she stared at her right arm that, unlike usual, wasn’t instantly regenerating.

Durandal’s power was effective even against a vampire’s regenerative abilities.

“Didn’t you know? Wounds don’t heal as well when you get old. Grandma.”

Of course, I hadn’t completely blocked her regenerative abilities.

Being a demigod, she could resist Durandal’s power to some extent, and if she expended more than a dozen times her normal power, she could probably regenerate slowly.

“So, what did you say earlier? That I have no skill except for surprise attacks? Let’s see if that’s really true.”

If I gave her the chance, that is.